Farmers' Market and Comfort Food

I am in serious need of comfort food.  October is one of the busiest months for me at the restaurant.  Everyone who was away for the summer, relaxing on their decks or patios with friends, are now booking dinner at the restaurant.  Companies that had vacated DC for the summer are back at work and throwing cocktail parties and business dinners.  It's as if Washingtonians feel bad for deserted us during July and August and feel like they need to make it up to us.  Great for business but utterly exhausting.  After an unavoidably hard week I needed comfort food and fast - something warm and satisfying. -something that reflects the season.  I headed out to the farmers' market to get inspired.

Grape kiwis? Never heard of them.  They kind of smelled like kiwis.  So cute!  You apparently eat them whole, no peeling necessary.

I buy my eggs from this woman every Sunday.  I'm not sure if I can really taste the difference between these and the ones you would get at the store but appart from it being more fun I just like thinking that my eggs came from happy chickens on her farm.  She reuses the egg cartons too.

Twin Springs is my go-to fruits and vegetable stand.  I used to go to their Bethesda location on Saturdays when I lived there.  I feel a sense of loyalty to them and their prices are very reasonable.

I guess other people like them too!

It's dahlia season!

How beautiful are these variegated beans and eggplant

I didn't know you could grow ginger this far north.  I assumed it was a tropical plant.  Wrong again!

OK these aren't from the farmers' market.  They were hanging off the plant growing in front of my building but it was so colorful I thought I'd take a picture!  When did we decide that fall colors were represented by fall foliage?  The farmers market is bursting with pinks and purples and bright greens!

I ended up coming home with butternut squash, a LOT of apples, a few pairs, apple cider and some brussels sprouts.  Now what to make.....?

When it comes to comfort I think is stews and soups.  Since it was in the 70s this week (the last warm spell of the year I'm sure) I wasn't quite ready for a stew so I went with soup.  Butternut squash and apples are a pretty classic combination for soup.  I've been craving pizza from Delancey ever since I had it Seattle this summer.  The owner of the restaurant started out writing a food blog so I thought I'd check it out for a recipe.  Success!

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

adapted from Orangette

Ingredients:

¼ cup olive oil ( I used just a couple tablespoons)

1 2-lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
2 flavorful apples, preferably Gala, peeled, cored, and cut into 2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)- ( used 3 apples.  They just looked so good.)
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 1 cup) ( I'm sure she was calling for a white onion but I used a red onion for its sweetness and color)
¾ tsp curry powder ( I didn't have curry powder so I used some cumin and paprika instead)
¾ tsp ground mace ( I used nutmeg which is pretty close)
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 cup good-quality apple cider (I had some from the farmers' market)
1 quart chicken stock (vegetable works fine as well) ( I used vegetable bouillon cubes. I know I should have my own stock... if I just had the time to make it)

I wanted to add a little spice so a I added a few pinches of Espelette pepper.  It's a mild chili pepper flake cultivated in France.  It adds just enough spice to give the soup a little kick without making it really spicy.

Directions:

Peel and cut the butternut squash and apples (that I both bought at the farmers' market!  Market use #1!!) into cubes and add them to a large pot along with the onion. "Saute" them, more like steam them, until the onion starts to turn translucent.  Add the spices, the cider  (that I bought at the market!  Use #2!!!) and the vegetable stock and cook away, about 40 minutes, until the squash is nice and tender.  Honestly that's about it.  That's what's great about soups.  Once you do all the chopping it's really up to the pot and heat to do their job and meld all the ingredients.

Carefully ladle the cooked vegetables and broth into a food processor or blender and pulse it until it becomes smooth.  Remember to do this in small batches because hot liquids will create pressure in the blender and rise to the top quickly.

When you are ready to eat it you could put a little dollop of creme fraiche or fromage blanc in the middle or eat it as it is. Yum.

Food, for me, can really wipe away whatever it was that I was thinking about or worrying about.  The act of chopping and cutting and measuring and stirring relaxes me and eating the final product is so satisfying.  This easy soup was just what I needed after my long week.  One day off and on to the next one!

***

Last Sunday I tried to make chocolate caramels from a cookbook my Italian chef friends gave me...and failed miserably.  It was probably because the instructions were in Italian.  I can understand a good 50% of what I hear and read but 50% just doesn't cut it when it comes to baking and confectionaries.  Out of failure comes success though.  I had a lot of leftover cream so I made butter!

I started out by shaking the cream in an empty 1/2 gallon milk jug.  By the time it got to whipped cream consistency it really got too hard for me to shake.  I must be seriously lacking in upper body muscle.  I transferred my whipped cream to the mixer and let it finish the job.

Butter in my butter bell for my morning toast this week

Easy Chicken Masala and revisiting my knife skills

I suppose I have to thank Bon Appetit Magazine for my weekend of cooking.  A recipe from a while back for yesterday's soup and a DELICIOUS recipe for Chicken Masala from the most recent issue.

I love Indian food but have always been reluctant to try and cook it myself for one reason: so many ingredients!  I got Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet cookbook a few years ago but have yet to make anything out of it because most of the dishes call for at least 10 ingredients, most of them spices I don't own.  I'm slowly building up my Indian spice repertoire.  Until then, I am relying on spice packets from Whole Foods!  Thankfully that's exactly what the Bon Appetit recipe called for.

Two years ago I took a knife skills class at L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD .  I had so much fun, even though I came home with a blister on my right index finger from all the chopping!  In the class they gave us a few chickens to cut up and de-bone.  Usually when I buy whole chickens it's to roast them.  This recipe was a fun excuse to try and cut one up again!

Easy Chicken Masala
as found in Bon Appetit's February 2010 issue

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro (I left this out... sorry Cilantro lovers)
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs garam masala ( I used a ready mixed bag I bought at Whole Foods but you can also mix your own with the appropriate spices too!)
2 tsp salt
1 large garlic clove ( I used two small ones)
1 4-4 1/2 lb whole chicken (I could only find a 7 lb one so that's what I used)


Directions:
Cut up the whole chicken into 8 pieces.

Next, mix the yogurt, olive oil, garam masala, salt and garlic in a glass baking dish. 

Add the chicken.  Cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it at least 2 hours and up until 1 day.

Preheat over to 400 degrees and roast chicken for 45-50 minutes.  I checked mine after 45 minutes and it was almost done... 50 minutes is a good happy medium I think.


This recipe could not have been easier to make. The yogurt made the chicken so moist and the garam marsala gave it such amazing flavor.  Roasting turned the marinade into a caramelized crust.  Yum!!  This is a must try recipe!

Enjoy!

 
 

A bright soup on a snowy Saturday

It's another snowy Saturday in D.C.  I've been so busy working late at work, I promised myself I would cook this weekend to make sure I had something yummy to come home to for dinner next week.  Soup is an easy answer.  I can keep some in the fridge and then freeze some for later!

My little Dupont Circle goddess looks like she is wearing a snow shawl, doesn't she?  

I never noticed how strong her arms were!  

My mom found a recipe in one of her Bon Appetit magazines about a year ago for an amazing carrot ginger soup.  On such a grey, snowy day I thought something bright, orange and a little spicy would be perfect.

Ginger Carrot Soup
Addapted from Bon Appetit Magazine

2tbs of salted butter
1/4 cup of olive oil (I used a little less)
1.5 lbs of carrots (It's about a bag and a half of those bags of carrots from the store)
4.5 cups of vegetable stock (I used 4 cups because that's all I had!)
1 large onion
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbs of grated fresh ginger (I only used about 1 tbs)

Directions:

Peel and chop the carrots into small circles. Put them in a large pan along with the chopped up onion, butter, ginger and olive oil.  Over medium heat, saute them together for about 10 minutes or until the onions and carrots start to soften.

Add the vegetable stock and nutmeg and turn up the heat a little bit (not too too much!)  Let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the carrots are soft.

Once it has finished cooking, transfer it carefully, in stages, into a food processor and blend it until creamy.

 

Who said you need fancy appliances to cook well?  I like to call mine "vintage".  

It belonged to my grandmother.

 

Serve in a heated bowl to make sure the soup doesn't cool off before it reaches the table.  You can add a little bit of creme fraiche or sour cream in the middle to make it just that much more delicious.  I clearly went that route!

 

...and then there was none.